Siblings donate $10 million to lynching victims memorial

KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The children of a late Michigan businessman are donating $10 million to help build a memorial and museum in Alabama dedicated to black lynching victims.

Philanthropists Jon and Pat Stryker have each given $5 million toward the Equal Justice Initiative’s $35 million campaign to build The Memorial to Peace and Justice. The group says the memorial honors the 4,075 black people killed by lynching nationwide from 1877 to 1950.

Jon Styker, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and his sister, who lives in Colorado, say their donation honors their father, Lee Stryker, former president of the Stryker Corp. medical supply company.

They say he strongly believed in justice and equality, and would be humbled to support “an essential and long-overdue memorial.”

The museum is scheduled to open next year, and the memorial in 2018.